System for distribution permissions for network communications

ABSTRACT

A system that can control whether a recipient of an electronic message (e.g., a text message, a multimedia message, an e-mail message, etc.) with a forwarding-restricted attachment is permitted to forward the attachment to third parties can be implemented on the network without specialized hardware or software for the client devices. The sender of a text message may limit the downstream distribution of that text message through text message forwarding by associating a forwarding restriction flag with the message.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/564,569, filed Aug. 1, 2012, which claims the benefit of U.S.Provisional Patent Application No. 61/649,674, filed May 21, 2012, andwhich is also a continuation-in-part of PCT International PatentApplication No. PCT/US11/00191, filed Feb. 1, 2011, which claimed thebenefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/300,122, filedFeb. 1, 2010.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to the field of electronic communicationnetworks and, in particular, to a system and method for a sender of anelectronic message on a network to control and limit the distribution ofan attachment to that message by flagging the message attachment to beforwarding restricted.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Text messaging, such as Short Messages Service (SMS), also known as“texting”, refers to the exchange (i.e., transmission and receipt) ofbrief written or text messages between digital mobile phones overcellular or other wireless networks. Individual messages are referred toas “text messages” or “texts”. Many service providers or carriers alsooffer multimedia messaging services, such as Multimedia MessagingService (MMS), that allow for exchange of messages containing multimediacontent, such as image, video and sound content. The most commonapplication of the service is person-to-person messaging.

To send such a message, a user types the text into a mobile phone orother text-enabled device, attaches the desired multimedia content,enters one or more phone numbers for the recipients of the message, andsends the message. A SMS or MMS center receives and stores the SMS/MMSmessage, and then forwards the message to the recipient when therecipient is available.

One problem with such messaging services is that recipients of suchmessages may without limitation forward them to third parties. While auser may create a customized SMS message that he/she intends for onlythe intended recipient to receive, the recipient can forward the messageto multiple third parties, who may in turn forward the message onto toother parties, and so on.

With the advance in technology that permits texting to include images,photos and videos, a very common practice has arisen called “sexting”,which is slang for the act of sending sexually explicit or suggestivecontent within or as part of a text message. A genre of texting, sextinginvolves sending either text, images or video that is intended to besexually arousing. Many surveys show that an alarming number of childrenand teens have electronically sent nude or semi-nude images ofthemselves, and this number is growing rapidly.

Although sexting often takes place consensually between two people, itcan also occur against the wishes of a person who is the subject of thecontent. An increasing social danger with sexting is that material canbe very easily and widely promulgated, and the originator has no controlover it. There have been many instances which have been reportedthroughout the news media where the recipients of sexting have sharedthe content of the messages with others, with less intimate intentions,such as to impress their friends or embarrass the sender, therebyincreasing the instances where the intended recipient is not the onlyone viewing the content. Celebrities have also been victims of suchabuses of sexting.

Although many public service advertisements and notices have urgedchildren, teens and the general public to be wary of sexting or ofsending any text message that they would not want someone other that therecipient to see, it has proven difficult to prevent individuals fromsending these types of text messages. Similarly, it has also provendifficult to prevent recipients from forwarding messages to others.

It is an object of the present invention to prevent the recipient ofsuch text messages from forwarding the message to those who were notintended to see the message in the first place.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a means to preventthe recipient of such text messages from forwarding the messagenon-intended recipients, where such means are respected by therespective devices as well as by the network service providers orcarriers.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention solves the above problems by providing systems and methodsthat control whether a recipient of an electronic message (e.g., a textmessage, a multimedia message, an e-mail message, etc.) is permitted toforward the message and/or its attachment to third parties. Theinvention provides a system and mechanism for a sender of a text messageincluding an image to limit the downstream distribution of that textmessage through text message forwarding by associating a forwardingrestriction flag with the message and/or its attachment.

In one embodiment of the invention, a sender of a message can flag themessage as not being allowed to be forwarded by including some simpletext, for example, “DNF”, within the text portion of the message or DNFflag indication attached to the message. In general, a user may not beable to force the recipient's client device to respect the simple DNFtext flag that is included in the message because of the number ofdifferent client devices present in a network system. Most times, onedoes not have control over all the operating systems and applications onsuch client devices, for example, all the cell phones that are on acellular network. Also, once a message is in unencrypted form on aclient device, then the user can use its own application to forward sucha message.

In certain embodiments of the invention, the messaging network wouldrespect the forwarding restriction flag, even if the forwardingrestriction flag is not respected by the recipient's client device. Forexample, the network, or a connected service, could store a copy ofevery message that it receives with a forwarding restricted flag andthen compare each message sent from one of the recipients of such amessage with all the forwarding restricted messages received by thatdevice. If there is a match, and the message sent was not allowed to beforwarded (even with the flag removed), then the network will refuse tosend such a message. Alternatively, the network, or a connected service,could store only copies of certain parts of a message that it receiveswith a DNF flag, e.g., the DNF attachment, and then compare that part orattachment of each message sent from one of the recipients of such amessage with all the forwarding restricted attachments received by thatdevice. If there is a match, and the message with the DNF attachment wasnot allowed to be forwarded (even with the flag removed), then thenetwork will refuse to send such a message or attachment.

This core concept may involve several additional features:

1. Hashing: Whereas in one embodiment of the invention, the messagingnetwork would store a copy of every forwarding-restrictedmessage/attachment that it receives, many consumers may not like theidea of all their messages or message attachments, particularly thosethat are forwarding-restricted, being stored by the carrier.Accordingly, in one embodiment, all such stored forwarding restrictedmessages or attachments are compressed or “hashed”, i.e., passed througha mathematical (cryptographic) hash algorithm or function, prior tobeing stored. Hash functions are often used to speed up data comparisontasks, such as detecting duplicated or similar records in a large file,by compressing large data sets of variable length to smaller data setsof a fixed length. In this situation, compressing theforwarding-restricted message or attachment through a hash algorithmconverts it into a hash value, which is a semi-unique code. This hashvalue is nearly impossible to be converted back into the message butallows the forwarding-restricted message or attachment to be matchedwith the identical message or attachment that a recipient attempts toforward, because that message or attachment, when hashed, would beconverted to the identical hash value. In this way, if a message orattachment sent by a subscriber is identical to one that was previouslyreceived by that person and has been designated asforwarding-restricted, then the carrier could detect this new message orattachment and block it from being sent. Algorithms that allow for somechange to the image while still retaining the same value can also beused.

2. Flagging: In another embodiment of the invention, not all messages orattachments would be blocked, but rather only those that are flagged insome way. In this embodiment, only those messages or attachments with adesignation such as “DNF” (do not forward) in them would be flagged andsubject to the restrictions on forwarding. Of course, only thosecarriers implementing this standard would respect those flags.Alternatively, perhaps instead of “DNF”, only images are subject to theforwarding restrictions.

3. Data Pooling: In a further embodiment, the network can limit theviral forwarding of messages or their attachments by, for instance,placing restrictions on the forwarding of a message or its attachment,such as a message containing a photo or the photo itself, regardless ofwhether it was initially flagged for restricted forwarding, if there isan indication that the message or photo is “going viral”, i.e., beingforwarded a very high number of times within a very short amount oftime. In this embodiment, it may also be acceptable for the network tore-examine the content of a message that has been forwarded more thanonce or twice, for example a pre-set number of times or a pre-set numberof times within a pre-set time period. In this embodiment, a networkcould track, such as via hash values, the path of a message orattachment, and when it has been forwarded more than a critical numberof times within the network within a pre-set time period, then eitherblock further forwarding of the message/attachment or re-examine thecontent of the message/attachment, either manually or through a softwareprogram. The critical number of times that a message/attachment isforwarded within the a pre-set time period would be set sufficientlyhigh to indicate a level of interest that may be considered prurient orless-than-honorable, so as to trigger a closer inspection of the messageor attachment being forwarded. The system can also block forwarding of amessage or attachment that has been received by a chosen criticallimited number of subscribers in its network, regardless of whether themessage/attachment has left the carrier's network and been returned tothe carrier's network by a subscriber of another carrier.

4. Notification: In yet another embodiment of the invention, the carriercould append to incoming messages that are intended not to be forwardeda designation, such as “DNF”, that is sufficiently noticeable to therecipient so as to provide notification that the message/attachmentbeing received is forwarding-restricted. The recipient of theforwarding-restricted message would then be less inclined to attempt toforward the message, thus potentially saving the computing resources ofthe network servers.

5. Keyword Screening: In still another embodiment of the invention, thecarrier could screen for “adult” keywords that accompany an image, whichkeywords might suggest the image content. Further, the carrier couldscreen for “adult” keywords in replies to the sender of the image, whichkeywords might shed light on the image contents. If any of the critical,preselected “adult” keywords are used in either the original message ora reply thereto, the carrier may automatically flag the original messageforwarding restricted.

6. User Specified Limits: In yet a further embodiment, a user mayinclude parameters with the flag, such as to permit a message/attachmentto be forwarded but only a limited number of times, such as up to threetimes. In this embodiment, the user could add a flag “DNF>3”, whichwould indicate to the system not to forward the message or attachmentmore than 3 times. Then, if recipients attempt to forward the message orattachment more than the chosen limited number of times, furtherforwarding of the message/attachment would be prevented. A network couldtrack, such as via hash values, the path of a message/attachment, and,when it has been forwarded the chosen limited critical number of timeswithin the network, then further forwarding of the message is blocked.The system can also block a forwarding of a message that has beenreceived by a chosen limited number of subscribers in its network,regardless of whether the message has left the carrier and been returnedby a subscriber of another carrier.

7. DNF Non-Compliance Notification: In another embodiment, if a userflags a message or message attachment as forwarding restricted, then afirst carrier can detect the second carrier to which themessage/attachment is about to be delivered and ask the sender forverification that the message/attachment may be sent to that receivingcarrier. For example, if the forwarding restricted message/attachment isbeing sent to a carrier that is not known to respect forwardingrestriction flags, then the sending carrier may send an auto-reply tothe sender as follows: “Your Do-Not-Forward request will not be enforcedby 111-111-1111's network. Should the message/attachment still be sent?(reply with “yes”, or do nothing)”.

In a preferred embodiment, a central repository or sever would maintainall the stored forwarding-restricted messages/attachments or hash codesof those stored messages/attachments. In that way, all the carriers canshare the restricted forwarding flags and thereby respect the rules setby the subscribers on any network. For instance, if a user indicates alimit of “DNF>10” on his message, then regardless of the carriersthrough which the forwarding-restricted message is forwarded, thecentral repository can track every time that the message is forwarded,keep a running tally of the number of times that the message isforwarded and advise users who try to forward the message once theforwarding limit has been reached that it can no longer be forwarded. Inthis embodiment, the cell phone carriers linked to the centralrepository would have to report forwarding on a real time basis and seekpermission to forward further.

Another aspect of the invention is to decrease incentive for the user tosend incriminating photos of themselves, particularly in the case ofminors, by automatically sending to the account holder a copy of alltext messages sent or forwarded from a phone on a particular account.The user could know in advance that the cell phone account has thissetting, thereby providing a disincentive to send potentiallyincriminating photos of himself or others. In a variation on this, theaccount statement could contain thumbnail images of all images inmessages that were forwarded by the phone.

In certain instances, a recipient of a forwarding-restricted messagecontaining an image may attempt to defeat the forwarding restriction bycopying the image into a new message. Forwarding of an attached photocan be limited through the addition of meta data associated with theimage. For example, if a “DNF” flag is associated with the originalmessage in which the photo was sent, the carrier could attach a DNF flagwithin the meta data of the image as well. In this way, the recipientwould have difficulty modifying such meta data on the client device andthe carrier, and other carriers could still respect the metadata flagwhen it reenters the network during a forwarding operation. Adisadvantage is that if someone were to remove the flag, then it couldbe freely forwarded, and this might be more easily achieved thanmodification of the image itself, especially when substantialmodification of the image may be necessary to change the hash value.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other objects and advantages of the invention will beapparent upon consideration of the following detailed description, takenin conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which the referencecharacters refer to like parts throughout and in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary network arrangement of hardware forimplementing a method in accordance with an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 shows a sender's handset in preparation for sending a textmessage with image or photo attached;

FIGS. 3A-3C shows a process flow diagram of a text message with an imagebeing sent from a sender subscribed to a first carrier to a recipientsubscribed to a second carrier;

FIG. 4 shows a graphical flow diagram of the DNF verification processtaken when a text message with an image is sent from a sender to acarrier;

FIG. 5A shows a sequence of forwarding that would occur in the absenceof the system of the invention;

FIG. 5B shows a sequence of forwarding that occurs in the presence ofthe system of the invention;

FIG. 6 shows a process flow diagram for ensuring that all outgoingmessage attachments are subjected to a check with the PermissionService;

FIG. 7 shows a process flow diagram for impairing the dissemination offorwarding restricted content through image fragmentation; and

FIG. 8 shows a process flow diagram for impairing the dissemination offorwarding restricted content through automatic message copying.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Reference will now be made to the exemplary embodiments illustrated inthe drawings, and specific language will be used herein to describe thesame. It will nevertheless be understood that no limitation of the scopeof the invention is thereby intended. Alterations and furthermodifications of the inventive features illustrated herein, andadditional applications of the principles of the inventions asillustrated herein, which would occur to one skilled in the relevant artand having possession of this disclosure, are to be considered withinthe scope of the invention.

FIG. 1 shows an example of a network arrangement of a hardware system100 for use with the current invention. System 100 can be any knownsystem configuration, such as a standard SMS or MMS systemconfiguration, to provide various rich content services via interactionsbetween a plurality of mobile users and a mobile network provider.System 100 includes various network types, such as 2G mobile networks,3G mobile networks, internets, etc. The network interface can beaccommodated via cellular systems, internet protocols as well as otherrelated network message protocols. In addition, the multimedia messagestransfer protocols on the 2G/3G mobile network can be compatible withthe existing multimedia message transfer protocols on the internet.

System 100 has a first network 110 operated by Carrier A connected to asecond network 112 operated by Carrier B through conventionalcarrier-carrier communications network link 108. Permission Service 102operates independently from all network carriers and communicates withCarrier A and Carrier B independently. Permission Service 102 may beexternal to and accessible to all network carriers, or each networkcarrier may utilize its own separate Permission Service 102. Carrier Ahas a plurality of handsets subscribing to its network 110: a firsthandset 116 communicates with Carrier A 110 through link 115, as do asecond handset 118 and a third handset 120 through their respectivelinks 117 and 119. Carrier B also has a plurality of handsetssubscribing to its network 112: a first handset 122 communicates withCarrier B 112 through link 121, as do a second handset 124 and thirdhandset 126 through their respective links 123 and 125.

If a user takes a photo with handset 116 and wishes to send that photoin a text (SMS or MMS) message to the user of handset, thatcommunication will typically travel over a conventional communicationlink. For example, if the intended recipient is the user of handset 118,then the communication will typically travel over the internalcommunication network 110 of Carrier A. However, if the intendedrecipient is the user of handset 128, then that communication willtypically travel over the conventional carrier-carrier communicationlink 108 from network 110 of Carrier to network 112 of Carrier B. Inembodiments of this invention, as will be discussed below, Carrier A 110first checks with the Permission Service 102 whether it is permitted tosend the first message on to the second handset before sending themessage.

With reference now to FIG. 2, a handset 200 is depicted, such as handset116 of FIG. 1, with its outer casing 202, screen 204 and keypad 212. Onthe screen 204, various components of a SMS/MMS text message authoringsession are displayed, such as the recipient's phone number 203, thephoto 206 that was taken by that handset and is now about to be includedwith the message, and the text component 208 of the text message whichalso contains the “DNF” text flag 210 indicating that this message isfor the recipient only and should not be forwarded.

It is preferred that the designation, such as “DNF”, be sufficientlynoticeable to the recipient so as to provide notification that themessage being received is forwarding-restricted. The recipient of theforwarding-restricted message would then be less inclined to attempt toforward the message, thus potentially saving the computing resources ofthe network servers.

FIG. 3A shows a process flow diagram 300 of the sending of text message208 and photo 206 of FIG. 2 (or other attachment) from handset 200 of asender subscribed to the network of carrier A to a recipient. At step302, the sender captures photo 206 with handset 200, at step 304 thesender includes photo 206 in a text message 208, and at step 306 thesender adds the forwarding restriction “DNF” 210 to the body of text inthe message. At step 308, the sender sends the message, which promptshandset 200 to upload the text and photo in the message to the networkof the sender's carrier, e.g., network 110 of carrier A, at step 310.

In one embodiment of the invention, carrier A would send a copy of thephoto or other attachment included within the forwarding-restrictedmessage that it receives from handset 200 (or the entireforwarding-restricted message itself) and send it to Permission Service102 for inclusion in the Do-Not-Forward database offorwarding-restricted messages. When that recipient or a subsequentrecipient attempts to forward a message that includes a photo or otherattachment, the photo/attachment in that message is compared with thephotos/attachments stored in the DNF database at Permission Service 102.If a message or photo/attachment to be sent by a subscriber is identicalto one that was is stored at Permission Service 102 and designated asforwarding-restricted, then the carrier would block thisphoto/attachment from being sent.

In another embodiment, in order to avoid Permission Service 102 havingto store all forwarding-restricted photos, attachments or messages, allsuch stored forwarding restricted messages (or the forwarding-restrictedphotos/attachments forwarded within those messages are compressed or“hashed”, i.e., passed through a mathematical algorithm known as a hashfunction, prior to being stored and converted into code. Compressing theforwarding-restricted message or attachment through a hash algorithmconverts it into a hash value, which is a semi-unique code.Alternatively, other mathematical encryption algorithms that convertblocks of data, such as photos, attachments or messages, into resultingfixed-size data units may be used, preferably where such resulting dataunits cannot be converted back (i.e., “un-compressed”) into the originaldata blocks.

This code is then stored by Permission Service 102. Then, when anotheruser attempts to forward a photo or other attachment, the photo orattachment to be forwarded is hashed and then compared to the hash codesstored at Permission Service 102. If the hash code of the photo orattachment to be forwarded identically matches a hash code of stored atPermission Service 102 and designated as being forwarding-restricted,then the carrier would block this photo from being sent. Along with thehash data associated with the forwarding-restricted attachments ormessages that are received by an individual, Permission Service 102could also store some identifying information for that individual, suchas phone number, account or other identification number, etc., so as tobe able to later compare attachments or messages that the individualattempts to forward with those that the individual has received.Alternatively, if no such identifying information is stored with thehash values, the then DNF attachments or messages will be globallyrestricted.

It is noted that data storage by Permission Service 102 of hash valuesof the forwarding-restricted attachments or messages is considered to besecure and carries no risk of recovery of the forwarding-restrictedattachments or messages. This is because it is nearly impossible toconvert the stored hash values back into the original attachments ormessages that were processed with the hash function and resulted in thestored hash values, such that the original, forwarding-restrictedattachments cannot be recovered from the data storage.

Continuing the process flow on FIG. 3B, at step 312 the carrierevaluates whether an image 206 was received from handset 200 within textmessage 208. If no image 206 was present, then the carrier need notcheck with the Permission Service 102, and the carrier proceeds to sendthe text message 208 as normal (see step 326 of FIG. 3C).

If an image 206 is present in text message 208, at step 314 of FIG. 3Bthe carrier calculates the hash value of the image 206. The hash valuecan be calculated by a number of different algorithms, as known by thosewith skill in the art. In this regard, it is preferable that the samehash algorithm be used by all the carriers so that the results of allhash values will be consistent can be compared.

At step 316, the hash value along with the “DNF” request is sent to thePermission Service. At step 318, the Permission Service 102 checks itsDo-Not-Forward database to determine whether the image was previouslybeen sent and designated as forwarding-restricted. In one embodiment,Permission Service 102 checks its Do-Not-Forward database for dataassociated with that sender to determine whether the image waspreviously received by that sender as forwarding-restricted. If theexact same hash value, or a hash value with a difference from thecomparison hash value below a certain threshold, is present inPermission Service DNF database, then the image must previously havebeen sent (to that sender) and designated as forwarding-restricted, andthe sender is attempting to forward this forwarding-restricted image.The Permission Service then sends the carrier a refusal message at step320, and the carrier in turn then refuses to send the message and sonotifies the sender at step 322. This is also shown graphically in FIG.4.

However, if the exact same hash value is not present in the PermissionService's Do-Not-Forward database, then at step 324 the PermissionService enters this hash value into the Do-Not-Forward database offorwarding-restricted messages. In one embodiment, the identical hashvalue would have to be absent from the Permission Service'sDo-Not-Forward database associated with that individual in order for thePermission Service to enter this hash value into the Do-Not-Forwarddatabase of forwarding-restricted messages that are associated it withthat individual. This image or photo is saved into the DNF database atPermission Service 102 because the “DNF” flagged photo was sent to thePermission Service to determine whether the message could be forwarded.Naturally, if there had not been a “DNF” flag associated with the photo,then the photo would not be stored in the DNF database at PermissionService 102.

The process flow continues in FIG. 3C where at step 326 the carrierproceeds to send the message. At step 328, the message is passed to thesecond carrier, if the recipient is a subscriber to the network of acarrier other than the network of the sender's carrier, and at step 330the second carrier delivers the message to the recipient.

The invention can apply to any message attachments, such as photos(which are discussed herein as an exemplary attachment), as in the aboveprocess flow, or to simple text messages, where a hash value can becalculated from the text message itself and not an associated image.

In a further embodiment, the sender may include parameters with the DNFflag, such as to permit a message to be forwarded only a limited numberof times. In this embodiment, the user could add a flag “DNF>3”, whichwould indicate to the system not to forward the message more than threetimes. In this regard, the Permission Service stores a counter alongwith each stored DNF photo to internally tally the amount of times thatforwarding-restricted photo has been forwarded. If the inquiry to thePermission Service for forwarding the photo has not reached the maximumpermitted number of forwards, then the Permission Service does not issuea “block”, and each permitted forward of the forwarding-restricted photoincreases the tally by one. If a recipient attempts to forward themessage but the Permission Service has determined that the maximumpermitted number of forwards has been reached, further forwarding of themessage is prevented. Alternatively, the network could also track, suchas via hash values, the path of a message, and, when it has beenforwarded the chosen limited critical number of times within thenetwork.

In still another embodiment, the user's carrier can detect the carrierto which the message flagged as being forwarding restricted is about tobe delivered and ask the sender for verification that the message may besent to the receiving carrier. For example, if the forwarding restrictedmessage is being sent to a carrier that is not known to respectforwarding restriction flags, then the sending carrier may send anauto-reply to the sender as follows: “Your Do-Not-Forward request willnot be enforced by 111-111-1111's network. Should the message still besent? (reply with “yes”, or do nothing)”.

FIG. 5A shows a sequence of forwarding that would occur in the absenceof the system of the invention. In this sequence, user of handset 116forwards the text message with photo to the user of handset 118 withinthe network of Carrier A. User of handset 118 forwards the text messagewith photo to the user of handset 122, who is a subscriber to thenetwork of Carrier B, who forwards the text message with photo to theuser of handset 128, who is a subscriber to the network of Carrier C. Inthis sequence, with no forwarding restrictions, the text message withphoto can be forwarded to anyone anywhere.

In FIG. 5B, however, once the text message with photo that is markedwith the DNF flag and that has been designated as forwarding-restrictedhas been forwarded from user of handset 116 to the user of handset 118within the network of Carrier A, the photo is stored within the DNFdatabase at Permission Service 102. The system of the invention thenprevents the user of handset 118 from forwarding the text message withDNF photo to the user of handset 122, who is a subscriber to the networkof Carrier B. Thus, neither the user of handset 122 nor the user ofhandset 128, nor anyone else, can receive the text message with the DNFphoto.

It should be noted, however, that, under the current state oftechnology, once an MMS message is received on a device, e.g., handset116, it may be quite simple to save that image to the device's photostorage. If this happens, the DNF restrictions for an MMS-attached imagemay be circumvented by the user of that device merely by forwarding thatsaved image via text/MMS or e-mail communication rather than byforwarding the original text message communication. Any check by networkservers to see if the image matches a hash value of any message on a DNFlist would be thereby bypassed.

A further aspect of the invention, as shown in the second and thirdlines of FIG. 6, is to provide a mechanism whereby all outgoing imagetext/MMS or e-mail attachments from a client device are subjected to thesame check with the Permission Service 102 as the forwarded textmessages, as described above. However, in order that not every text ore-mail attachment need be checked, a carrier may screen for text ore-mail attachments that have characteristics of images, often mosteasily identified through MIME types, for example, as well as othersknown in the art.

It is common practice for users of mobile phones to sometimes useweb-based e-mail services, rather than the e-mail functionality providedby the carrier or handset. Images that are attached to e-mails throughweb-based e-mail systems are uploaded to a website during thetransmission process. Accordingly, this should be considered in thenetwork traffic being screened for images originating from the handset,such that all internet traffic from the handset should be screened fordata that has characteristics of an image file, not just data thatpasses through the carrier's e-mail service, as shown in FIG. 6.

It should also be noted that an image that is saved to a client devicecan often be accessed when that client device is connected orsynchronized with a personal computer. When this happens, the DNFrestrictions for an MMS-attached image may be circumvented bytransferring of the image off the client device without the image firsthaving been subjected to any checks, e.g., by Permission Service 102, tosee if that image matches an image on a DNF list. Then, once on apersonal computer, the image can be disseminated through social networksites or attached to emails without DNF restrictions. Accordingly,unless the internet traffic is screened for images and subjected to theDNF screening process by an Internet Service Provider, or other entitythat is in the pathway of the internet traffic from the personalcomputer, then an unprotected pathway exists for an image with DNFrestrictions to still be disseminated.

One mechanism to substantially impair the dissemination of forwardingrestricted content is through image fragmentation. When an MMS messageis viewed on a client device, it is typically displayed by the device'simage viewer. This image viewer's application built into the device, oras part of the device's operating system, typically provides thefunctionality for that image to be saved to the device's photo album. Itis possible to prevent an MMS image attachment from being displayed bythe device's image viewer application and thereby make it more difficultfor the user to save the image to the device's photo album for thepurpose of disseminating it through aforementioned mechanisms, or toeven forward it directly from the image viewer application, as ispossible with some image viewer applications.

As shown in FIG. 7, one mechanism to prevent the image from beingdisplayed in the image view application is for the network, for examplea dedicated separation/fragmentation module, to detach the image from anMMS message, convert the text portion of the image into a simple textmessage without an image attachment, and then fragment the image intomultiple fragments or pieces, e.g., in a geometric shape, such as theshape of squares or rectangles, and post the image fragments to a webserver. An HTML page would be constructed with references to the imagefragment URL's on the web server and, when viewed in a web browser,would contain HTML markup that allows the web browser to seamlesslydisplay all the rectangles together. The URL of the HTML file would thenbe appended to the text of the text message. Any URL links that are sentin a text message are typically recognized by a client device as a URL,and the text message application provides a mechanism for the user tonavigate to the URL in a web browser by a simple selection (e.g., click,or touch on a screen, depending on the capabilities of the clientdevice). In this way, the HTML file and referenced image fragments willbe downloaded from the web server and displayed in a web browser on thedevice.

Many web browsers also provide a simple mechanism to save images on aweb page to the device's photo album, but, given that the viewed photonow comprises many small image fragments, any attempt to save the imagewill result in just a small fragment being saved to the client device,rather than the entire image. The image fragmentation mechanism providesyet another barrier to preventing a user from easily forwarding arestricted message. Carriers are able to detect which device in theirnetwork requested a web page from a web server in their network and cantherefore only allow a request for an HTML page, or image files,originating from a specific handset to retrieve the content at that URL.This is important to prevent a user accessing the image fragments from adesktop device, or another handset that might have been forwarded thetext message with appended URL.

Another mechanism to substantially impair the dissemination offorwarding restricted content is through Automated DNF Tagging. Thereare increasingly sophisticated algorithms available that use imageprocessing techniques to discern if an image has a high probability ofcontaining nudity. Such algorithms can be used in conjunction with thepresent invention. Once an image attached to an MMS message has beendetermined to have a high probability of containing nudity, that MMSmessage can be automatically tagged as a DNF message.

A further mechanism to substantially impair the dissemination offorwarding restricted content is through a mechanism, as shown in FIG.8, wherein a parent or guardian automatically receives a copy of eachtext message or e-mail sent. As an alternative to receiving everymessage sent and/or received in real time, the parent or guardian canreceive a daily summary of any activity by email, or receiving all thepictures as part of the electronic or printed monthly account summary.

It is to be understood that the above-referenced arrangements are onlyillustrative of the application for the principles of the presentinvention. Numerous modifications and alternative arrangements can bedevised without departing from the spirit and scope of the presentinvention. While the present invention has been shown in the drawingsand fully described above with particularity and detail in connectionwith what is presently deemed to be the most practical and preferredembodiment(s) of the invention, it will be apparent to those of ordinaryskill in the art that numerous modifications can be made withoutdeparting from the principles and concepts of the invention as set forthherein.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A method of restricting the distribution ofattachments to electronic messages via an electronic communicationsnetwork, the method comprising: receiving, via the electroniccommunications network, a data value representing the result of theprocessing, by a one-way compression algorithm, of an electronic messageattachment, to which attachment a forwarding control indicator has beenassociated; receiving, associated with said data value, identificationinformation regarding an individual; recording in a data storage thedata value and the identification information regarding the individual;and recording in the data storage a plurality of data values that arethe results of the processing, by a one-way compression algorithm, of arespective plurality of attachments whose distribution has beenrestricted and identification information associated with eachattachment data value regarding an individual who had received therespective attachment.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the forwardingcontrol indicator has been associated with the attachment by a sender,to the individual, of the electronic message having the attachment. 3.The method of claim 2, wherein the forwarding control indicatorcomprises a character sequence, flag or other indicator as to arestriction, placed by the sender of the electronic message, on themanner of distribution of the attachment by the individual and/or by oneor more subsequent recipients thereof.
 4. The method of claim 1, whereinthe forwarding control indicator indicates that distribution of theelectronic message attachment to which the forwarding control indicatorhas been associated is restricted.
 5. The method of claim 4, wherein thedata value represents the attachment whose distribution is restricted.6. The method of claim 1, wherein the processing of the electronicmessage attachment is done by the electronic communications network. 7.A method of restricting the distribution of an attachment to anelectronic message via an electronic communications network, theelectronic message attachment being requested to be sent or forwarded byan individual, the method comprising: receiving, via the electroniccommunications network, a data value representing the result ofprocessing, by a one-way compression algorithm, of the electronicmessage attachment; comparing the data value with each of a plurality ofstored data values; and transmitting, via the electronic communicationsnetwork, an indication of a degree of similarity between the given datavalue and one or more of the plurality of stored data values, wherein,when the degree of similarity between the given data value and at leastone of the plurality of stored data values is high, the step oftransmitting the indication comprises transmitting a lack of permissionfor the individual to send or forward the electronic message attachment.8. The method of claim 7, wherein the plurality of stored data valuesare the results of the processing, by a one-way compression algorithm,of a respective plurality of attachments of which distribution has beenrestricted.
 9. The method of claim 8, further comprising storing,associated with each data value, identifying information of anindividual who received the attachment whose processing resulted in thedata value.
 10. The method of claim 7, wherein, when the degree ofsimilarity between the given data value and at least one of theplurality of stored data values is low, the step of transmitting theindication comprises transmitting permission for the individual to sendor forward the electronic message attachment.
 11. A method ofrestricting the distribution of attachments to electronic messages, themethod comprising: receiving a request for sending or forwarding of anelectronic message attachment by an individual; comparing a data valuerepresenting the electronic message attachment with each of a pluralityof stored data values associated with the individual; determining thedegree of similarity between the data value representing the electronicmessage attachment and one or more of the plurality of stored datavalues associated with the individual; and transmitting an indication ofpermission or lack of permission for the individual to send or forwardthe electronic message attachment wherein, if the degree of similaritybetween the data value and at least one of the plurality of stored datavalues associated with the individual is high, the step of transmittingan indication comprises transmitting an indication of a lack ofpermission for the individual to send or forward the electronic messageattachment.
 12. The method of claim 11, wherein the step of receivingthe request comprises receiving the data value representing theelectronic message attachment, wherein the data value is the result ofprocessing, by a one-way compression algorithm, of the electronicmessage attachment.
 13. The method of claim 11, wherein, if the degreeof similarity between the data value and at least one of the pluralityof stored data values associated with the individual is low, the step oftransmitting the indication comprises transmitting the indication ofpermission for the individual to send or forward the electronic messageattachment.
 14. The method of claim 11, wherein the step of transmittingthe indication comprises transmitting the indication of lack ofpermission for the individual to send or forward the electronic messageattachment if the data value is substantially equivalent to at least oneof the plurality of stored data values associated with the individual.15. The method of claim 11, further comprising storing the plurality ofdata values, wherein the plurality of stored data values are the resultsof the processing, by a one-way compression algorithm, of a respectiveplurality of attachments received by the individual and of whichdistribution has been restricted.
 16. The method of claim 15, furthercomprising storing, with respect to each of the plurality of stored datavalues, identification information regarding the individual who hadreceived the respective attachment.